A holistic understanding of web design elements

Web design elements are significantly important for web designers to understand target users in terms of effective communication design and to develop a successful web site. However, web design elements generally known are broad and various that are hardly conceived and classified, so many practitioners and design researchers approach to web design elements based on graphic and visual design that mainly focus on print media design. This paper discusses about web design elements in terms of online user experience, as web media certainly differs from print media. It aims to propose a fundamentally new concept, called 'UEDUs: User Experience Design Units' which enables web designers to define web design elements and conceptualise user experience depending on the purpose of web site development.

The understanding of avatar design : various types and styles of avatars and the design considerations

People have adopted various formats of media such as graphics, photo and text (nickname) in order to represent themselves when communicate with others online. Avatar is known as a visual form representing a user oneself and one's identity wished. Its form can vary from a two-dimensional model to a three-dimensional model, and can be visualised with various visual forms and styles. In general, two-dimensional images including an animated image are used in online forum communities and live chat software; while three-dimensional models are often used in computer games. Avatar design is often regarded as a graphic designer's visual image creation or a user's output based on one's personal preference, yet it often causes the avatar design having no consideration of its practical visual design and users' interactive communication experience aspects. This paper will review various types and styles of avatar and discuss about avatar design from visual design and online user experience perspectives. It aims to raise a design discourse in avatar design and build up a well-articulated set of design principles for effective avatar design.

Teaching motor racing engineering through real-life projects: benefits and challenges

Project-based learning (PBL) is widely used in engineering courses. The closer to real-life the project, the greater the relevance and depth of learning experienced by students. Formula Society of Automotive Engineering (FSAE) is a fine example of a team-based project modelled on real-life problems whereby each student team designs and builds a small race car for competitive evaluation. Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has participated in FSAE-Australia since 2004. Based on the success of the project, QUT has gone the additional step of introducing a motor-racing specialization (second major) to complement its mechanical engineering degree. In this paper, the benefits of teaching motor-racing engineering through real-life projects are presented together with a discussion of the challenges faced and how they have been addressed. In order to validate the authors' observations on the teaching approaches used, student feedback was solicited through QUT's online learning experience survey (LEX), as well as a customized paper-based survey. The results of the surveys are analysed and discussed in this paper.

Teaching tribology and maintenance-related subjects : a hands-on focus

In this paper different aspects of teaching tribology and maintenance-related subjects with a hands-on focus at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) are presented and discussed. As part of the study, a combination of data from core units, such as engineering design units, and elective units, was used, in addition to laboratory experiments, real-life projects, interactive software packages and industry visits. The mechanical engineering curriculum structure used at QUT, consisting of the main specialization (first major) and the second specialization (second major), is also discussed with specific emphasis on the teaching of tribology and maintenance-related subjects. To evaluate students' satisfaction with the novel teaching approaches used, tailored questionnaires were used as well as QUT's online learning experience survey (LEX). Statistical results of these sureveys are presented and discussed. In summary, these showed that students overwhelmingly support the hands-on and practical focus in teaching tribology and maintenance-related subjects and that the teaching approaches used shorten the learning curve and make students better prepared for integration in the workplace.

Influencing innovation in SME’s : from designer to transitional engineer

The following paper presents insights found during an ongoing industry engagement with a family-owned manufacturing SME in Australia. The study seeks to unpack cultural, strategic, product opportunities and challenges available to the firm engaging in a design led approach to innovation. Design led innovation finds new market opportunities to innovate through a holistic perspective of both the internal business operations, focusing on the customer experience and external stakeholders. The action research based methodology consisted of 25 semi-structured interviews, a reflective journal and focus group, all of which were analysed thematically. This paper focuses on the resultant themes of the focus group data constituting a discussion around the best strategies to try and integrate design thinking as a fundamental skill across the company. The main thematic results included the participant’s limited views of themselves (in current roles) as being to create ‘buy-in’ to change initiatives, a preference to act as a group to gain traction in the firm, importance of better defining the problem before reaching a design solution and lastly the time required to implement versus the need for change. These findings are valuable in assisting other family owned firms in managing core growth activities with design and innovation initiatives, particularly in the area of new product development.

Emotionate : an emerging research agenda

The creation of value through emotion has been previously explored through product design, marketing and consumer hedonics. While the notion of value creation is an important driver in business model generation, understanding what the customer honestly values and why, also needs to be considered. However, the role of emotion as a source of innovation, spanning business model creation to customer experience is not yet well understood. This research investigates how the inclusion of emotion will impact the design of a business model and business operations. A brief overview of relevant literature, the research gap and question, along with the future direction of this research is discussed in this paper.

Designing channels for brand value : four meta-models

Channels are becoming an increasingly important area for companies to innovate, specifically as they provide direct points of contact with their customers. However, little is known in regards to multi-channel strategies that embody strategic brand values and how customers experience these channels collectively. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how organisations configure multi- channel strategies to communicate their brand value and experience to their customers. Data was collated from sixty companies through a content analysis methodology within the retail sector. Results uncovered commonalities through the identification of four meta-models surrounding common brand values, intended emotive experience, individual channels and the customer segment. These meta-models are titled: High Quality, Trust, Convenience and Community. This research also presents implications of a multi-channel design tool based on findings from this study to help reinforce company brand values and design an overall connected customer experience.

网上消费者购物动机、点击流行为及其之间的关系

Online shopping has been a growing phenomenon all over the world as well as China in the recent years. Studies on online shopping with clickstream data have become a new research stream. But it is a pity that the online conversion rate is low. Accordingly, we can study on online consumers focusing on their shopping motivation, and put their shopping motivation and clickstream behavior into an integrative frame, study on the both construction and their relationship, and then we can get insight in chinese online consumers. This study has two processes. First, this study will use the questionnaire to explore all kinds of consumers’ online shopping motivation, and then emend the questionnaire and form the ultimate one for the second process. Second, we will simulate a shopping site to get clickstream data, participants need to complete the ultimate questionnaire at the same time. We will analyse the integrated data from two measures, cluster analysis separately, and explore the correspondence between the two cluster methods. Results show that, first, Chinese online shoppers contain five steady motivation factors: usefulness, fashion involvement, ease of use on searching, ease of use on alternative evaluation, ease of use after trade. Fashion involvement is comparatively independent, while the other have correlations between each two. Second, Chinese consumers can be clustered into five steady clusters according to online shopping motivation: functional shoppers, following shoppers, surfing shoppers, conflicting shoppers, e-laggard. The five clusters have significant differences on job, monthly income and online shopping experience of late six months, while have no significant differences on gender, age and education. Third, Chinese consumers can be clustered into five steady clusters according to clickstream data: functional browsers, hedonic browsers, impulsive shoppers, comparative shoppers and knowledge building browsers. The five clusters have significant differences only on age, while have no significant differences on other demographic variables. Fourth, the cluster methods according to motivation and according to clickstream data are two comparatively independent cluster frame, but they have limit correspondence.

消费者特征对其网络购物态度和行为意向的影响

In recent years, global online shopping grows rapidly, China's growth rate is far greater than the average level of the world. Online shopping as a new type of shopping patterns gradually drew the researcher's attention. There were so many existing researches on the relationship between consumer characteristic and online shopping attitude and intention, but few togethered the different abstract levels of consumer characteristic in one research. In this study, 3M Model was introduced as theory guide of whole research work, the Chinese consumers who knew about the online shopping was the research object, questionnaire survey was used to collect the data, different abstract levels of consumer characteristic were togethered in a hierarchical model, tried to establish a model to explain the relationship between different abstract levels of consumer characteristic and online shopping attitude and intention. In addition, the study also compared the models posed by data from different consumer groups. The results showed that: First, consumers’ openness, need for arousal, assessment of online shopping experience, perceived risk of online shopping would affect their online shopping attitude and online shopping intention. Second, openness, need for arousal indirectly influenced the online shopping intention through the perceived risk of online shopping. Third, the perceived risk of online shopping indirectly influenced the online shopping intention through online shopping attitude. Fourth, assessment of online shopping experience indirectly influenced the online shopping intention through the perceived risk of online shopping and online shopping attitude. Fifth, only online shopping attitude would directly affect online shopping intention. It also worked as a mediator variable in the final model. Sixth, network age, risk propensity did not significantly affect the online shopping attitude and online shopping intention. Seventh, freight fluctuation can affect student more than in-service on online shopping intention.

Object files can be purely episodic.

Our ability to track an object as the same persisting entity over time and motion may primarily rely on spatiotemporal representations which encode some, but not all, of an object's features. Previous researchers using the 'object reviewing' paradigm have demonstrated that such representations can store featural information of well-learned stimuli such as letters and words at a highly abstract level. However, it is unknown whether these representations can also store purely episodic information (i.e. information obtained from a single, novel encounter) that does not correspond to pre-existing type-representations in long-term memory. Here, in an object-reviewing experiment with novel face images as stimuli, observers still produced reliable object-specific preview benefits in dynamic displays: a preview of a novel face on a specific object speeded the recognition of that particular face at a later point when it appeared again on the same object compared to when it reappeared on a different object (beyond display-wide priming), even when all objects moved to new positions in the intervening delay. This case study demonstrates that the mid-level visual representations which keep track of persisting identity over time--e.g. 'object files', in one popular framework can store not only abstract types from long-term memory, but also specific tokens from online visual experience.

Repurchase intention in B2C e-commerce—A relationship quality perspective

Information systems professionals must pay attention to online customer retention. Drawing on the relationship marketing literature, we formulated and tested a model to explain B2C user repurchase intention from the perspective of relationship quality. The model was empirically tested through a survey conducted in Northern Ireland. Results showed that online relationship quality and perceived website usability positively impacted customer repurchase intention. Moreover, online relationship quality was positively influenced by perceived vendor expertise in order fulfillment, perceived vendor reputation, and perceived website usability, whereas distrust in vendor behavior negatively influenced online relationship quality. Implications of these findings are discussed. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Plataforma de gestão de guias de programação de TV digital

Com o consumismo de mais variedade e qualidade de informação, assim como, produtos interativos, surgiu a necessidade de apresentar mais conteúdos, para além da programação de televisão comum. Com os avanços tecnológicos ligados à indústria da televisão e sua distribuição nos lares portugueses pelos operadores de TV, a quantidade de oferta de canais deixou de ser um foco, passando a ser prioritário a melhoria da experiência do cliente. Com a introdução de novas funcionalidades nas caixas recetoras de sinais de transmissão de canais, como por exemplo, a capacidade de apresentar informações adicionais sobre os programas, desde da sua apresentação em modo trailer até ao elenco detalhado que o compõe, os clientes podem ter uma nova experiência de interação com os serviços de TV. A funcionalidade de gravação agendada de programas levou ao próximo ponto de melhoria de experiência do cliente. As gravações que resultavam em programas indevidamente cortados, quer no seu início quer no seu fim, foi um dos motivos que levou os operadores de TV a procurarem um melhor serviço de gestão de guias de programação digitais. A InfoPortugal, entidade detentora do seguinte projeto e EPG Provider de algumas operadoras de TV nacionais, viu-se obrigada a atualizar os seu sistemas de distribuição de conteúdos, para responder à evolução dos requisitos dos seus clientes.

Marketing experiencial, emoções, satisfação e lealdade

O marketing transacional apresenta-se nos dias de hoje insuficiente para fazer face às exigências de um consumidor mais participativo, seletivo e crítico. No mercado global, industrializado e em constante evolução tecnológica, é, cada vez mais, difícil obter um grau de diferenciação assente apenas nos benefícios funcionais e racionais. O marketing transacional evoluiu para o marketing relacional, constituindo o cliente o centro do processo de trocas. A economia das experiências alterou a forma como as marcas trabalham o mercado, introduzindo o conceito de experiências, o que por sua vez conceptualizou o marketing experiencial, orientado para a gestão da experiência do cliente, transformando o ato de consumo em algo memorável, cheio de estímulos sensoriais e emocionais, convertendo-se, por vezes, no próprio produto, seja ele de âmbito industrial, desportivo ou mesmo cultural. Este grau de envolvimento do cliente com a marca é elemento gerador de emoção, de satisfação, de lealdade e de valor. Este trabalho pretendeu analisar a importância e os componentes estimuladores do marketing experiencial e a sua relação com as emoções, satisfação e a lealdade dos consumidores no evento cultural “Serralves em festa 2013”. Para tal, utilizamos uma metodologia de investigação quantitativa, com recurso a análise de equações estruturais, suportada por uma pesquisa teórica. O estudo empírico realizado, baseado num inquérito por questionário, possibilitou obter uma amostra de 264 respostas válidas. Após a validação e melhoria das escalas de medida dos conceitos, os resultados destas e do modelo estrutural demonstraram valores adequados. Estudaram-se e comprovaram-se as relações previstas nas hipóteses, nomeadamente, a relação positiva do impacto das experiências no comportamento do consumidor, designadamente, na sua emoção e satisfação e o impacto destas na sua lealdade. Entre as variáveis estudadas foram obtidos interessantes níveis de correlação e capacidades preditivas.

Achieving better service level results, through improvements in procedures

This project aims to prepare Worten Empresas (WE) fulfilling the increasing market demand through process changings, focusing on the Portuguese market, particularly on internal B2B clients1. Several methods were used to measure the current service level provided - process mapping, resources assessment, benchmark and a survey. The results were then used to compare against service level actually desired by WE’s customer, and then to identify the performance gaps in response times and quality of the follow-up during the sales process. To bridge the identified gaps, both a set of recommendations and an implementation plan were suggested to improve and monitor customer experience. This study concluded that it is possible to fulfill the increasing level of demand and at the same time improve customer satisfaction by implementing changes at the operations level.

How to increase and attract more tourists into Kenya throught experiental marketing

This marketing plan project is a culmination of extensive strategies with the use of experiential marketing to address issues confronting the Kenyan tourism industry in order to have a sustainable tourism sector. Following the terrorist attack carried out by Islamist militants’ belonging to al-Shabaab terrorist organization on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall in September 2013, tourist forecast has gone down sharply with an average of 20% fall in tourists’ arrivals which is likely to have an impact on the tourism sector in Kenya. Even before the deadly attack on Westgate, the most lethal attack by Islamist terrorists in 15 years in Kenya, the government through the Kenya tourist board had announced that in 2013 tourist arrivals were down by 12%, at 495,978, according to an October 2013 report by Bloomberg. Tourism revenues were also down by 7.4%, over FY12/13 (July-June) to reach KES96.24bn, according to a September 2013 report on the local Capital FM website. Beyond 2013, much will depend on how quickly the Kenya tourist board can regain control of the situation. The Kenyan government believes that the Westgate mall attack was a 'one-off' incident, with a low probability of a similar event happening again over the short term period. Germany, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, France and Canada continue to be the key source market however; the Kenya tourist board can make continued growth stronger from new emerging markets in order to increase new arrivals into the country. The marketing plan outlines the objectives to be implemented and provides the implementation strategy, activity plans, monitoring and evaluation plans, financial requirements projections and proposes a new structure of experiential marketing. A number of regional forces are identified that will impact tourism into the country including global, social and economic forces, emerging trends in visitor motivations and behavior, emerging forces in experiential marketing. A major component of the strategy identifies target markets for Kenya to commensurate with the level of resources that will be available for marketing and promotion, in keeping with the forces and trends identified and the nature of the Kenya tourism environment. The agreed upon target market segments are: generic/mass travel, experiential travel, creative travel, adventure seeking travel, senior/extended/long stay travel, and business related travel. The strategy phases the development of the target markets over the years of the marketing strategies in order to yield the best opportunity for results. A core activity in developing a marketing strategy is determining the nature of experiences Kenya offers in tourism. The strategy’s experience development process will continue to develop within the context of the products identified which will be promoted regionally: culture/heritage, nature, community-based. Each county in the country has a significant number of attractions and experiences and the challenge of the country is to bring these together in a creative and innovative way in order to encourage tourists to visit more than one county in Kenya.